"Superb is the only term of description for this first (of a projected set of five) volumes containing all the surviving manuscripts originating with William Penn. . . . One can now more fully understand this extraordinary man's character—impetuous, careless, and disorganized in personal and business affiars, tactless yet burningly sincere and indefatigable."—Journal of American Studies

"A monumental volume. . . . [The editors] have produced a kind of encyclopedia, not merely of Penn's life but of the age itself."—The Eighteenth Century

This first volume, spanning the first thirty-five years of William Penn's life, from 1644 to 1679, documents his activities as a young Quaker activist.